Yeah, I took the title from a Slayer song, pretty sweet huh? I usually title entries after whatever I am listening to at the the moment (which happens to be The Gaslight Anthem's excellent Sink or Swim), but BB&B has been missing some death and carnage lately, so I thought I would put the focus back on wind energy. So the Slayer works, right? Yes, words like "death", "carnage" and "gore" do not exactly fit the language of the industry, but it happens. This past month we have started finding bird kills relatively regularly......so far they have all been warblers and vireos, plus a Mourning Dove and Ruby-throated Hummingbird. No raptors. Bats are still getting it as well, but we haven't had any really big daily kill totals in a few weeks. The weather has been treacherous lately, which might have something to do with it. But when the fog rolls in and visibility is piss poor(above), and wind is blowing out of the north (so a lot of birds are moving through), we may get a few birds on the ground the next day.
Speaking of which, I heard some sort of heron fly over my mountain last night, couldn't i.d. it by call......gotta work on my wader nocturnal flight calls I suppose. Bizarre.
Here's a good mystery bird. I guessed what it was before I found it's head, and was waaaaaay off. Feel free to take a shot. At any rate, the turbine didn't cause most of this damage, something had already scavenged it by the time I stumbled onto it.
A particularly bright-legged Blackpoll Warbler (they are usually dark-legged in fall) in eternal slumber.
A female Black-throated Blue Warbler met her maker the night before.
This Big Brown is the last bat I came across. It had already been there a few days when I found it.
Oh pfffffff...
ReplyDeleteGoldfinch?
Not so much......try again!
ReplyDeleteScarlet Tanager?
ReplyDeleteI can see rather strong dark feet, yellow undertail coverts, yellowish inner flight feathers and a greenish sheen to the folded wing, and it seems the species might have quite a significant primary projection...
I immediately thought it was some sort of a warbler when I first found it, but was surprised to find it was a Red-eyed Vireo when we got to look at it's head. I didn't know they got so yellow in the undertail coverts.
ReplyDeleteYes, that yellow IS surprising.
ReplyDeleteActually, the yellow is what put me off thinking it was a Red-eyed Vireo - no kidding!!
I know a lot of bird banders who say they can easily identify all sorts of birds in the hand but are utterly useless as field birders and then there are field birders who claim the same in reverse.
I suppose psychology plays a greater part in our perception than we like to acknowledge as birders. Damn us ignorant birders, damn us.
Now let's get a drink.